Solbidyum Wars Saga 7: Hunt for the Reduviids (39 page)

I could see Tonclin’s reaction on the screen and I quickly said to him, “Sir, with all due respect, I need to go.  The battle has begun.”  I turned to Marranalis, “Alert Admiral Slater; tell him the battle is on and to move in on the suspect Reduviids now.”

Marranalis passed on the orders and prepared separate holographic displays for each of the three battle scenes and adjusted in size to provide sufficient detail of the regions where the action was likely to unfold.  Soon the large asteroid-ships were visible on the first display as they moved into position and began firing at what they believed to be the cloaked Cantolla Gate Station.  What the Brotherhood found instead was that they had delivered themselves straight into a nest of cloaked Federation ships, hundreds of which began to break away and swoop in swiftly, directing an onslaught of firepower at the asteroid-ships with unexpected speed.  Fighters equipped with slow penetration torpedoes fired on the large asteroid-ships.  Most of the torpedoes that made it through the defensive fire exploded on the asteroids’ surfaces, causing little or no harm.  However, about one out of every five torpedoes managed to reach sensitive locations, resulting in much more significant damage.  Other Federation forces concentrated their efforts on the large Brotherhood ships.  We had learned earlier that concentrated firepower from several sources was sufficient to weaken the shields of the Brotherhood ships powered by the 10X fusion reactors.  Once shields were sufficiently compromised, slow penetration torpedoes and a little time is all that was needed to cause major damage to these larger ships.  In the meantime, the remaining bulk of our fighters took on the enemy’s fighters and smaller ships.

At Porpoatr, the main battle didn’t last long.  No sooner did the Federation ships start firing on the approaching Brotherhood fleet than the enemy broke and ran.  Our fighters and other ships that now could match their speeds took up pursuit and were doing considerable damage to the enemy.

At Locola, the enemy continued advancing under heavy fire, even after our ships had been revealed.  Once close to the planet, the Brotherhood unleashed a number of nuclear-tipped missiles at the planet.  Nybidong and the Ruwallie Rasson fighters raced in, picking off most of the missiles in flight before they made it into the planet’s atmosphere; nevertheless, two missiles did make it through.  The Ruwallie Rasson pursued the missiles into the atmosphere, and using the new fighter designs, reconfigured the ship's structure to deal with atmospheric flight.  Even so, it looked like the missiles were going to make it to their targets.  The missiles were seconds from impact, when fighters got a lock on the missiles and blew them up.  Unfortunately, even though the extensive structural damage the missiles could have done was prevented, a large cloud of radioactive material was dispersed into the atmosphere.  It would require large-scale work to clean up the radiation, and a lot of people would need to undergo treatment for exposure to the radioactive elements.

When the enemy saw their missiles failed to reach the planet surface, they began to fight, and the battle seemed to be equally matched; for every ship we took out, the Brotherhood took out one of ours.  However, after nearly two hours of fighting, it started to become clear that the Brotherhood was losing their larger ships, whereas the Federation was losing smaller ships, fighters, and patrol ships with the weaker RMFFs.  Not one of the Federations carriers took a hit; and no sooner did the Federation lose a fighter than we brought another one through one of the carriers Cantolla Gates from other base locations elsewhere in the Federation to replace it.  When the Brotherhood saw this, they turned and began to flee at their maximum speed; but unlike in the past, where they were able to outdistance the Federation, this time our ships were keeping pace with them and giving them a continued pounding.

From Megelleon, we got reports that Slater's men were rushed out of their concealment and quickly isolated the suspected Reduviid terrorists.  Several terrorists blew themselves up when they saw they were about to be captured.  Others were apprehended before they could reach their detonators.  Unlike the attacks in the past, there wasn’t one person with a detonator to blow them up.  Five of the people taken into custody weren’t terrorists at all, and happened to be innocent bystanders who looked suspicious.  Seven terrorists, though, managed to avoid being captured and nearly reached their targets before being shot, as they raced toward the Cantolla Gates.  One terrorist managed to get near enough to a gate that it was damaged and out of order for several hours until a replacement gate could be assembled. As soon as the attack began, all gates had been shut down, so at no time was the Capitol Station in danger from any enemy getting through from the ground.  In orbit, the two enemy freighters carrying torpedoes were shocked when dozens of Federation fighters uncloaked around them, ordering them to surrender.  Both freighters immediately cloaked and tried to make a run for it and were immediately destroyed.

On Epsirt the battle took another turn, once the FSO agents disguised as Norcar’s sons were kidnapped, Sisopan ordered Báihuā to stay behind to negotiate the Brotherhood demands with Norcar.  Báihuā tried to argue that it would be better for her to go with the hostages to the Reduviid base, but Sisopan would have none of that.  In the end Báihuā was forced to agree, as Sisopan was starting to get suspicious.  What happened next was something we had not foreseen; our nearby ships, on receiving word that the battles were underway elsewhere, rushed in to attack the Reduviid under-ice base.  Even though they were cloaked, they were detected coming in; and once it was clear that they knew the base location and were heading there, the Reduviids opened fire on the incoming ships.  What we hadn’t taken into consideration was that Sisopan and the hostages would not yet have arrived at the base and would be in transit somewhere between the base and the estate.  As soon as the battle began, I had Marranalis contact the government on Epsirt and open a vid link with their leader.

Once his image appeared in the screen, I began speaking, “I am Fleet Admiral Thibodaux James Renwalt of the Galactic Federation of Planets; we currently have a number of ships and troopers entering your airspace in pursuit of agents and operatives of the Brotherhood of Light who have been using your planet as a base of operation.  We have no wish to conquer your planet or invade it; we are only interested in the Brotherhood of Light members and their terrorist organization known as the Reduviids who have a training base under the ice at the southern area of your planet.  Please do not interfere with our operation; we wish you no harm; but should your military interfere, we will destroy them.”

“This is preposterous," the leader exclaimed, red-faced.  "We are a sovereign planet; you have no right to invade our airspace!  This is an act of war, and we will not tolerate it.”

“I’m sorry you see it that way,” I said, “however, we will pursue the Brotherhood on your planet, and we will eliminate them, with or without your cooperation.  Right now, we have enough ships in orbit around Epsirt that we could take or destroy your entire planet.  We have no wish to do so; we only wish to extract, and put an end to the Brotherhood operations on your planet.  Any attempts you make to prevent us from doing so will be considered as an act to aid and assist our enemy, and thus make you an enemy as well.  At the moment, the Federation’s position is that you were unaware of the actions of the Brotherhood on your planet; otherwise we would have to assume you were assisting them willingly, in which case we would be at war with your planet.”

I could see their leader sweating and weighing my words.  He had known fully well the Brotherhood was operating on his planet and was allowing them sanctuary either by choice, or because he was under some sort of duress and compromised in some way.  It didn’t matter which, and he knew it; all he could do now was to look for an easy out.

“I don’t see that you leave us any choice,” their leader said.  “However, I am putting our military on alert and should we see that you are making any moves against our planet, outside of your stated purpose of removing the Brotherhood and their bases, of which we were completely unawares, I might add, we will have to resist and defend ourselves.”

“I fully understand,” I said.  “We shall make every endeavor to minimize our impact on your world as much as possible.  I do ask, however, that for the moment, you request a halt to all ships leaving your planet; we would feel bad if we were to accidently destroy one believing it to be one of the Brotherhood trying to escape.”  I saw the leader stiffen and get red faced when I said this, but he said, “I’ll do as you say.  However, I must warn you, Admiral, I will be filing a protest with the Federation about this blatant violation of our sovereignty.”

“By all means do so; it is entirely within your rights, just as it is within our rights to defend and protect our lives and wellbeing by tracking down and eliminating any threats against our people, regardless of where they are.  Know that we, likewise, will be investigating the roles and actions of your government and people; and in the event of any cooperation with our enemy, we, likewise, will take actions.”

I could see their leader starting to sweat now as he stammered… “Ah, I assure you, Admiral; no one in this government has any connections with the Brotherhood, if they are, in fact, here at all.  I do hope that should you find them, you will honor your statement and remove them quickly and be gone from our world.”

“We have every intent to do so,” I replied, “now if you’ll excuse me, I have a war to see to.”

By now, we had ground troopers pouring through the Cantolla Gate set up in the storage locker.  The locker and the gate were large enough to permit small mechanized armor units and surface transports to pass through.  As soon as assault units were through and assembled, they were
en route
to the estate the Brotherhood had been using on Epsirt as their headquarters.  The assault troops reached the Brotherhood estate at about the same moment as the Reduviid base near the southern pole came under attack, and the estate was caught off guard.  A short battle ensued, but the estate was quickly captured.  A quick search of the premises failed to find Professor Fass Hakwin, but it did appear that Roritat had spent some time at the estate at some point in the past.

So it was that several hours later, I found myself still in the War Room with Admirals Regeny and Wabussie as the battles wound down and cleanup operations began; the only place with fighting going on was at the Reduviid base.

“Tibby, what do you think happened to Sisopan and our agents?”  Regeny asked.

“I’ve no idea,” I said with some frustration.”  “The last thing we need is for her to escape again.”

“Sir,” Marranalis interrupted, “I have an urgent message coming in from Báihuā on Epsirt.”

“Put her through on the vid screen,” I said.

As soon as Báihuā’s image appeared she began speaking, “Admiral, Sisopan has returned here to the estate.  I’m not sure what happened; she only has agent Tabgellis and three of her Reduviids with her.  She knows that Tabgellis is an FSO agent, and that I am also; she opened fire on us as soon as they got out of their transport.  I think they may have killed Mazukam.  Tabgellis looked pretty beaten up and bloody when they dragged him into the house.”

“Do you know where they are in the house right now?”  I asked.

“Sort of, we’ve been following them on the security cameras as much as we can; but every time they stop to rest, Sisopan locates the cameras and shoots them out.  Then we have to wait for them to show up on another camera.”

“Why did she return to the estate?”  I asked.  “That doesn’t make sense.  I would expect her to try to get off the planet or hide somewhere."

“I don’t know, sir, the only thing in the area she is in now is the Cantolla Gate we have set up, but that’s disguised.  She'd never recognize it.”

“Wait, didn’t you say that Tabgellis looked beaten up, and you think Mazukam is dead?  You don’t think she might have tortured them and gotten one of them to tell her about the gate to the estate?”  I asked, as I realized what Sisopan was up to.  “Is there a camera in the room where the gate is?”

“Not exactly, but there is a camera in the hall looking into the room; you can’t see the gate through it, but you can see the area in front of the gate.”

“Hook us into the security camera feeds there at the estate,” I said.  A moment later, the vid screen split up into a series of framed views, each showing different area of the estate.  “Isolate the view to the one in the hall looking into the room where the Cantolla Gate is.”  The view enlarged and there we saw Sisopan and her cohorts dragging Tabgellis with them.  I could see Sisopan staring at the wall and reach out like she was touching something.  I could not see the wall, but clearly she was doing something.  Abruptly, she stepped back with a grin as she looked at the wall.  “Ah," she said, “looks like we have our way out.  Dump him and get through there and make sure it’s not a trap”, she said, as she looked down the hall and around the room.  Two of her companions stepped into the wall and vanished.

Moments later, Sisopan turned and looked into the opening, then she turned to the last of her men who was still holding Tabgellis up and said, “Kill him; we don’t need him anymore.”  I watched while she took a small object from her pocket and placed it on the wall as her companion shot Tabgellis, and they both stepped into the gate.  Seconds later, there was an explosion and dust and smoke filled the room.  A team of Federation troopers burst into the room from several directions looking about.  One of the house security team said, "they have blown up the Cantolla Gate.”